The world seemed to be ending when Dante Moore flipped his commitment from Oregon to UCLA earlier this week. But after what the Ducks were able to accomplish on Wednesday during the early signing period, Oregon fans didn’t seem to care about Moore going to Pasadena as much as they used to.
Instead, Dan Lanning pulled up his bootstraps and orchestrated the best single day of recruiting in Oregon history, and he is seemingly not quite finished.
But until more sign on, many of the recruiting services consider Oregon one of the big winners on signing day. According to writer Andrew Ivins of 247Sports:
Shortly after 8 a.m. on the East Coast, news broke that Top247 quarterback Austin Novosad was flipping from Baylor to Oregon. Most Ducks fans on the West Coast were probably asleep, but that’s OK because that Novosad flip was really just a preview for what was to come next.
In the span of roughly six hours, Oregon went from holding the nation’s No. 14-ranked recruiting class to the No. 7 class in the land as they beat out USC and Ohio State for five-star edge rusher Matayo Uiagalelei before flipping both Top247 safety Peyton Bowen and four-star running back Jayden Limar from Notre Dame. Oregon is still waiting on Bowen’s LOI at time of this article. The Ducks were also able to pry Top247 cornerback Daylen Austin away from LSU.
Not a bad day at the office for Dan Lanning, who has Oregon in prime position to sign just its third top 10-ranked recruiting class in the past 10 years.
While the Ducks are riding high, in the famous words of Ace Ventura, “In every contest, there must be a loser.” According to Ivins, one of those losers is former Oregon coach Mario Cristobal.
“No program entered Wednesday hotter than the Miami Hurricanes; you could practically see the steam coming off Mario Cristobal,” Ivins writes. “This is a phenomenal class that includes two franchise offensive tackles and offers some much-needed momentum to those in the 305. However, what is currently the nation’s No. 4 recruiting class hangs in the balance — at least a little bit. The big headline of the day is that five-star cornerback Cormani McClain (the No. 9 recruit nationally) delayed signing his LOI.”
The Hurricanes still brought in a great class. It’s what you do with that class and classes after that is where it matters. The same goes for the Ducks and Lanning. Bringing in high-rated recruits is one thing, but if that doesn’t equal wins on the field, it won’t mean a whole lot.
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